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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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'^ LETTER FROM T. M'CLINTOCK 



THE ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS 



FOR PROMOTING THE 



ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, &c. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED BY MERRIHEW AND THOMPSON, 

No, 7 Carter's Alky. 

1840. 



• 5^ 



At a meeting of the Association of Friends for Promoting the 
bolition of Slavery, and Improving the Condition of the Free 
eople of Color, held at Green street Meeting House, Fifth mo. 
3th, 1840, the following letter being read, was directed to be 
ublished. 

: Caleb Clothier, Iri] ^1^0 

Anne Churchman, 5 ^ 



h ^^The Association of Friends for Advocating the 
Cause of the Slave, and Improving the Condition of 
the free People of Color. ''^* 

Beloved Friends, — In recurring to the opportunity 
vhen it was my privilege to mingle with you at the meet- 
ng of your Association held last year, in the week of Phila- 
ielphia Yearly Meeting, and in recollecting that the period 
3 at hand when you will be likely again to be convened 
jn a similar occasion, my mind is clothed with affectionate 
lesires for your encouragement in the work of benevolence 
md humanity in which you are engaged. And what is 
hat work? The name by which you have designated 
/ourselves is, " The Association of Friends for Advocating 
he cause of the Slave, and Improving the Condition of 
he free People of Color." And what is a slave ? A 
)eing made in the image of God, bearing a conscious, in- 
elligent, and free nature — stamped with the lineaments of 
mmortality — possessed of the inalienable right to exercise 
he faculties conferred on him, in the acquirement of 
(vnowledge and virtue, in the promotion of his own happi- 
ness and the happiness of the beings around him, agreeably 
'0 the relations which the Creator has established. A 

* The title of the Association has been changed, as above, since last 
year. 



slave is such a being, with such a nature, with such rights, 
subjected invokintarily to the control of a fellow man. 
Unable to call any thing he has his own, except his un- 
uttered thoughts. Denied the use of the faculties of mind 
or body, only in accordance to the will of another. De- 
nied the privilege of using them in acquiring knowledge, in 
acquiring virtue, in acquiring happiness for himself or those 
most nearly related to him. Forbidden the exercise of the 
sympathies and affections of his nature. Forbidden to 
pour out these sympathies and affections in acts of kind- 
ness to his fellows in their afflictions, in cherishing and 
sustaining through life, with conjugal endearments, the 
partner of his choice, and in the extension of parental cares 
and solicitudes for his children. The child denied the 
exercise of filial affection, in aiding, in its turn, the parent, 
and in soothing, by a heaven-born tenderness, his declining 
years. In short, a slave is one, the high aspirations of! 
whose soul are crushed — the image of the Creator in himi 
effaced, and his whole nature degraded and brutalized, as 
far as can be done, by closing the avenues to knowledge, 
prostrating the pillars of virtue, repressing and rupturing 
all the sympathies and finer feelings, and paralyzing the 
moral faculties by cruelty and crime. 

To lift your brother man from this degradation — to re-le 
move from him the influences which sink him in ignorance, ipei 
in vice, in suffering, is one, and I trust, a main object of fe 
your Association. For, to use your best efforts to do alliriii 
this, is to "advocate the cause of the slave." And whediy 
you have broken the cruel fetters which bind down hisllfi 
humanity, your next object is to hold out to him the lights! ool 
of knowledge and the attractions of goodness, that he majiits 
walk in all the dignity of his manhood and in all the glorjfeil 
of his Godlike nature. Or, by doing this, you wish tc (i 
" improve the condition" of the People of Color, who are'ire, 
already free. i lieu 

Your Association embraces two great objects, two imnooci 
portant duties. With regard to the first — to the humaneiijen 
the benevolent, the Christian mind, a consideration of th<ieii(s; 



5 

nature and effects of slavery, to which I have adverted, 
will be sufficient to engage the sympathies, and induce the 
solemn inquiry, Is there not a duty devolving on me in 
relation to an evil affecting so terribly a large portion of 
fellow beings, children of the same common Father? — 
A.nd with regard to the second, an extensive field opens 
for the exercise of benevolence, not only in efforts to im- 
prove this class of our brethren and sisters by promoting 
the right and worthy application of the talents with which 
a benevolent God has endowed them, but in removing, as 
far as possible, that prevailing prejudice, the withering 
ffects of which are so keenly felt by them. 

Your minds, I doubt not, appreciate these views. Their 
advancement more effectually by associated action, has led 
to the formation of your Society. But, beloved brethren 
and sisters, let me incite you to renewed and increased 
zeal and diligence in the most interesting objects of your 
A^ssociation. Be not weary, I entreat you, in well doing, 
though little may seem to be achieved in " the cause of the 
slave." Remember our brother is still in bonds, toiling, 
tricken, and bleeding under the hard task-master — his sym- 
Dathies crushed — his Godlike nature a moral waste. Our 

ster is in agony in the cotton field — writhing beneath the 
:een lash of the oppressor — prostituted to his vile and 
emoniac lusts, with the alternative only of submission or 
leath — the fine sensibilities of her nature extinguished, 
uined, and their guardian and angelic influences supplied 
y those common to the lowest orders of animal existence ! 
f the time of their redemption seems long to us who are 
Doking on, or laboring for their emancipation, what must 
t seem to them, into whose souls the iron of slavery is 
aily and momently entering! 

Oh ! could we put our souls into their soul's stead — did 
76, indeed, " remember those in bonds as bound with 
lem," could we repose in our sealed houses, with the un- 
• oncernin v^hich most of us are now reposing? Were it 
,,ven our own husbands and wives, our own immediate pa- 
gnts and children, brothers and sisters, that were thus dehu- 



manized, subjected to this merciless, barbarous system 
would not the feelings of our humanity speak out in effort! 
for their rescue ? Would not our exertions be untiring! 
Would we not invoke all that is sacred in religion, all tha 
is tender and holy in human nature, to aid us in our e^ 
forts for their liberation, and the elevation of their morr 
and physical being? And are not these our brethren, oui 
friends, our neighbors ? Can we, as the Priest and Levite: 
pass them by and be guiltless ? Will not the King'i 
award to us be, " inasmuch as ye did it not to one of thj 
least of these, my brethren, ye did it not to me !" 

Oh, then, be not weary in well doing. Let us look nc| 
on our toils, but on the chained and stricken slave, noi 
ever tire till the manacle falls from his limbs and the fet 
ter from his soul, and he rises disenthralled, body ano 
mind, from slavery and sin, the free subject of the kingj 
dom of heaven. 1 

As members of the Society of Friends, a high responsii 
bility rests upon us in this matter. We have been by edu< 
cation, by principle, by habits of thought, by practice* 
exempt from many of the fetters which bind the free spil 
rit of man. We have been placed in a position in which' 
we could exercise the divine promptings of humanity, i] 
which we could take more just and comprehensive view 
of the obligations of justice, of mercy, of truth, of fidelity 
and that charity which suffereth long and is kind, an(' 
which '' seeketh not her own." Religion, in our vievj 
has been emphatically embodied, not in speculative the* 
ories, but in practical righteousness, in active virtues^ 
in reverence to God, in benevolence to man — the lat' 
ter being the only sure test of the former. Well, wherr 
much is given much is required. We are all stewards oij 
the grace of God. For every advantage by which we arc' 
distinguished from the rest of our brethern and sisters o 
the human family, we are accountable. They are confer 
red on us not from any personal merit, or special regarc 
of the impartial Father of man, but are the result of tht, 
operations of his inscrutable providence, and of the laws 



le has established for the good of the whole. They are 
dents given us to occupy in the renovation of the world. 
'%e work we know, and the time of labor now is ours, 
let us work while the day lasts, for the period is at hand 
7hen our work will end. 

The events of the past year admonish us to diligence, 
specially you, my beloved brethren and sisters, whom I 
m addressing. When I met you, a year past, your as- 
ociation numbered as one of its most valued and active 
lembers, the excellent, the beloved Joseph Parrish.^ He 
now removed. The chill of death has checked the 
/arm current of his sympathetic bosom. He is no longer 
nth you to cheer you on in your work of love, by the 
ind tones and kindling eloquence of his voice, and the 
wisdom of his counsels. In his removal you have lost a 
lost efficient coadjutor, and the slave a sympathetic, 
ue hearted, and powerful friend. Assembled with 
also, on the occasion to which I have adverted, 
mong the comparatively few elderly Friends who 
'ere found there, was the amiable, the excellent, 
le meek-spirited John Foulke. He had long com- 
liserated his brother in bonds, and his commiseration 
ad not been entombed in his own breast — his mouth had 
een opened " for the dumb," in the cause of those " ap- 
ointed to destruction." His presence on that occasion 
fas cheering to my own spirit ;— for I love to see old age 
erdant with the foliage of human sympathies and affec- 
ons. But he, too, has been called away from his labor in 
lis vineyard. On us who remain, the work now devolves — 
\\e responsibility is ours. May it be our concern to be 
3und faithful — assured that he who has invested us with 

consciousness of our duties, will qualify us for their ful- 
Iment, and bless our efforts, not only to the objects of 
oncern, but to our own advancement in the perfections of 

* Dr. Parrish was the author of the Constitution of the Association, 
1(1 felt a deep interest in its concerns, but had not his name affixed 
5 a member. 



8 

our being, in durable riches and righteousness. For 
beautiful reciprocity marks all the economy of his wisdomi 
by which " he that watereth is himself also watered"— 
he that benefits his brother, has the blessing poured bad 
into his own bosom. 

Affectionately, your friend and brother in the hope ant 
labor of the world's redemption, 

Tho. M'Clintock. 

Waterloo, N. F., Fifth mo. 9, 1840. 



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